On Tuesday 24 August 2004 17:21, Benedikt Mandl wrote:
In terms of users: I think that there actually would be some overlapping information of wikipedia and wikispecies - for that reason a stron connection between the two would be very important and beneficial for both. On the other hand I think that the niche for a specifically biology dedicated, taxonomic database such as wikispecies is big and the potential potential applications different enough to justify the existance of a wikispecies in addition to the wikipedia.
When it comes to biologists to contribute contents, I am sure that it will be MUCH easier to convince them to work on a species directory with pure bio-applications rather than a general encyclopedia. Which doesn't mean that wikipedia won't benefit from wikispecies - just the opposite.
It might be that it is easier in the beginning to convince experts to contribute to a specialized catalogue than to a general encyclopedia. On the other hand I know that we already have experts in other areas who work on the Wikipedia.
For example Uwe Kills who is a professor for biological oceanography or Axel Boldt who is a professor for mathematics. Just have a look to how many articles Axel Boldt has produced http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:AxelBoldt and I never heard that he asked for a special wikipedia which deals with mathematics exclusively.
If it is possible to incorporate highly specialized topics from mathematics into Wikipedia then I can't see a reason why this shouldn't be possible for the biological field. I had a look at fishbase.org and I found nothing which would prevent adding similar information to Wikipedia.
Perhaps I just do not understand sufficently the problems that come with taxonomy, but I would prefer it if we don't split our resources and if Wikipedia becomes the resource for _all_ human knowledge. At least this is what I and probably many others dream is.
best regards, Marco